Pressure sensitive labels are commonly applied to various products to identify information associated with the product. Such labels are used in numerous environments to provide a variety of functions including, for example, identifying the source or destination of goods, identifying a price associated with goods, identifying nutritional information associated with a food product, etc.
Typically, pressure sensitive labels include a top layer which is configured for being printed upon. The top layer is coated with adhesive on a bottom side. The label may not be used immediately following its manufacture and so a release liner is placed on the other side of the adhesive to prevent the adhesive from unintentionally sticking to other items. The release liner is coated with a silicone release agent to allow the release liner to be easily removed from the adhesive when a user is ready to put the label to use.
Pressure sensitive labels are commonly manufactured using a machine finished paper product or super calandered kraft (SCK) paper for the release liner. That is, the paper is processed to provide a smooth surface on at least one side of the paper. Silicone is then applied to the finished side of the paper that will form the release liner. The paper's smooth surface prevents the silicone from soaking into the fibers of the paper and the silicone is effectively layered on top of the paper. That is, the smooth finish prevents the silicone from migrating into the paper itself and so the silicone forms a layer on top of the paper. Then, an adhesive is attached to the label using a transfer coating process. More particularly, the adhesive is applied to the silicone layer of the release liner. The release liner and the adhesive are then passed through a dryer which removes the water from the adhesive. The adhesive is then “transferred” to the back of the face sheet of the label itself. More particularly, the liner with the adhesive is laminated to the back of the face sheet by layering the face sheet on the exposed side of the adhesive. The face sheet is not treated with silicone and so the adhesive adheres better to the face sheet than the silicone treated liner and the adhesive effectively migrates to the back of the face sheet.
Typical municipal recycling facilities are not equipped to recycle release liners of the type described above. More particularly, the silicone release agent may need to be scraped off the release liner to permit recycling. Since this process is difficult, used release liners are typically sent to the landfill.
While this problem has been recognized for some time, previous solutions to this problem have been inadequate. More specifically, attempts to solve this issue have led to the development of liner-less labels. These labels do not have a release liner and typically have a silicone release agent applied to the printable side of the top layer to allow the labels to be released from the roll. The disadvantages to this approach are numerous. For example, since the labels do not have a base layer (i.e. a liner), die cut shapes are not possible.
Similar reference numerals may have been used in different figures to denote similar components.